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Saturday, October 08, 2005

Punishment At Home

lim peh ka li kong

Yesterday after work, me went to fetch my mother to my house as my mother missed her 12 grand children since the last time she saw them was 2 weeks ago.

All my children love their grandmother very much because my mother has been too kind to them and even to the extend of allowing them to do what they want, which sometimes raised conflicts between my mother and my cha-bo-lang. You all know la, me stuck in between darn jia-liat one. Help mother wrong, help cha bo lang also wrong; So normally if conflict arises between them, me will become David Cokkerfield, disappeared into thin air and take cover until the storm calms down.....

Of course, one other important reason that my 12 children love their grandmother so much is because my mother always buys lots of good food everytime she comes to visit her grand children. (Food whereby both me and my cha bo lang will not normally buy and what we called "junk" food). My cha-bo-lang once told me that it´s okay for the children to enjoy the food my mother bought so long it is not too frequent.

Anyway, when me and my mother reached home, surprising no children ran out to welcome their beloved papa and grandma. Immediately in my heart I knew my cha-bo-lang was angry again cos I encountered the same type of atmosphere just not too long ago.

My mind immediately tried to recall what I have talked and put in my blog lately but nothing serious leh, the only displeased my cha-bo-lang told me (in fact scolded me is the better word) was when she saw I uploaded the twin´s photo in my blog and yes that was why the entry was taken out almost immediately - those lucky ones who happened to visit my blog at that short period of time will get a glimpse of the photo).

I think my mother also sensed the scary atmosphere that was lingering within my house and both of us entered quietly.

Once in my hall, me saw 3 of my young children (1 boy and 2 girls - age 7,8, and 9 respectively) kneeling at the corner of the hall and pulling their own ears and my cha-bo- lang was sitting on the sofa behind them.

"Ai-yo! Why my bao-pei (precious) grand children kneeling on the floor?" My mother said and she walked towards the 3 of them. Think she was trying to get them up from their punishment they were having. "Come come, get up children, tell grandma why you all are kneeling down?"

My cha-bo-lang immediately looked at my mother and said, "Ma, leave them alone. They are not supposed to get up unless they complete the 30 minutes punishment from me."

Wa, I think my 3 children must have made a very serious mistake because my cha-bo-lang seldomed used such punishment. The usual punishment for being naughty is only go to bed without watching television or no dessert after dinner.

"Ai-yo, dua-soh, children so young, teach them slowly lor, they don´t know things la, Punish them little bit ok la, no need to make them kneeled for so long la." my mother after talking, turned towards my 3 children again and said," come come children get up, come ah ma here."

I could see that the youngest boy was already putting down his hands from his ears and was about to get up when he heard my cha-bo-lang said,"Don´t you dare to get up before I say so." Wa, immediately my young son pulled his ears again and kneeled very still.

"Ma, how many times must I tell you, when I disciplined my children, no one is to interfere? Some more you don´t know what wrong they had done so how can you stop them from getting the punishment?" My cha-bo-lang told my mother. "When I brought them out shopping this afternoon, they were running and playing at the carpark. I already told them not to play at the car parks as you know they are so short and drivers can´t see them and it is very dangerous. These 3 naughty children, despite my warning, maybe too engross in their playing, continued to run wild. How can I not punish them?"

"Anyway, for whatever reason for punishment they get from me or lau beng, please bear in mind that you are not to interfere." My cha-bo-lang told my mother but with a more tone-down voice.

"Ma," I led my mother to the sofa and said,"Please dont spoil the children la. They deserved to have their punishment. Young is not an excuse, we dont want something to happen then we all regret and anyway, kneeling is ok one la. The last time me lost my 1 month salary on gambling, I was also punished by kneeling but worst, kneeling on "hum-kak" (cockle shells)."

"Huh!?! Hum-kak, siong or not?" My mother asked me.

I did not answer my mother but just wiped away the teardrop which was tangling at the corner of my eye.

5 Comments:

Do you know the root cause? The problem doesn't lie with your children's mother or grandmother. It's the father. As the Chinese says zi bu jiao, fu zhi guo, meaning if the child misbehaves, the father has not teach/guide him.

Could you write something about wild girl who only enjoys coffee in Starbuck, Coffee Bean, etc, not knowing that her father is working so hard to put food on the table.

When you write about hum-kak, it reminds me when I went to Thailand for my army course, the instructor put the water bottle caps (those metal caps from the figure 8 glass bottles) and got us kneel down on high alert. That was tekan. I guess he learnt it from your mother. But I have to thank him for training me to have a pair of strong knees. It helps, besides having good thigh and abdominal muscles.

No la, the cockles were consumed before the grand kneeling, so in fact the cockles did punish me after I ate them. Think should eat vegetables instead then I probably only will be asked to kneel on vege.